During the wee hours of the sunset, just after a 3-4 hours street football match, which we shall later come back to, the conditions would be favorable now to kick start thee game.
Saye, the seeker would begin. No-o-oh, those hiding would respond as if giving clue of where they are for the sake of not giving a hard time the seeker. So far there is no clue of where the name “saye” came from (if anyone knows, feel free to educate us in the comment section). But it surely derives from “Ça y’est” the French phrase that translates to “that’s it” and by responding “no” the one hiding only meant that (s)he is not yet well hidden. The rules of the game are that the seeker should at least find one person and touch the agreed spot (mostly where the seeker is saying “Saye” from in Kinyarwanda we used to call it aho batapuriza) before the one hiding touches it and then it would be the turn of the one discovered to play the seeker after everyone else is discovered or has touched the agreed spot before the seeker.
In other parts of the world, it’s called hide and seek. Applying a tiny bit amount of analytical skills, one would say that the game taught the kids hiding skills, incase of a robbery at night which happened a lot back then and patience that goes with “he that seeketh, findeth”.
It’s a good game really and it also made the parents happy watching their kids play it. However, let me take you to the other side of the fence, where all the magic happened, “en cachette” as the French would say. This side has the “first time” stories that were not recounted at the dinner tables. There is a reason why it was one of the games where both genders actively participated.
For instance, there is this one time everyone had come out of their hiding places except Alan (not real name) and Carmen (not real name). Alan was the star of the neighborhood because of his football playing skills that earned him the name Zidane and Carmen had had a secret crush on him since they were 8 years old. At that time most kids were 10 plus or minus 2 years. That day the seeker looked for them for almost half an hour until everyone jumped in and helped looking for them, worried that something bad had happened to them. Stories about kidnapped kids had become many during those days.
Everyone was worried about their wellbeing and also that if something terrible has really happened, we would kiss goodbye to our play rights. It was a messy situation and it was getting dark outside. Moreover, their young siblings even began to cry, almost calling parents for help. Fast forward, as we had all given up searching for them; working out on everyone’s alibi and the proper wording of the situation at hand, the two come out of their hiding place racing to touch the agreed place called gutapuza in Kinyarwanda. We were all angry at how much time they made us loose while still waiting for them. This would later lead to the amendment of the game rules that when some of the players are so good at hiding, the game can continue without having to wait for them to show themselves up. No one bothered to look at the other angle of the story, “what the hell were the two doing all that time alone?” We were all innocent and we would later find out that Alan got his first cheek kiss that time which became a habit from that day and earned him massive respect and a rank of love affairs senior advisor in the whole neighborhood even though not many of us really got to use his services at that age. This was mostly due to how religious our neighborhood was, and the feeling that had been instilled in us by our parents that dating and/or even having a crush at that age felt wrong in every way.
Saye was a beautiful game really. Some even wished their crush would come to hide with them regardless of the religious views. Others got their worst reputation from the game like Kevin and Margaret (not their real names) who tried touching each other but little did they know that they were only hiding from the seeker and not the window of one of the kid’s parent. Both got a beating of their lifetime from that parent, and when their real parents came, they too beat them. From that day, they were viewed as “children of satan”.
The game was awesome, it’s even funnier how one was not afraid of the bushes that (s) he was hiding in but rather afraid of being discovered and loosing the game. In some way the memories from this game make it more fun and interesting and it is even better when played in a rural setting; with trees, bushes, abandoned building and so on. Every child who played this game has something they will never forget about the game.
Drop your Saye funniest memories, if you ever played it in your neighbourhood
GROWING UP IN RWANDA 